This story is AU. There are no soul reapers, espada, hollows or anything of that sort

We are free

Chapter 1: Lost freedom

"Wake up Orihime! You're going to be late for school." I opened my eyes and turned to my right side to see my alarm clock. It read 6:59 and school started at 8:00. I jumped out of bed and stumbled toward the door. "I'm up brother," I said in a groggy tone. I headed to the bathroom, took a shower and did my business. Then I came out, got dressed, did my hair then headed downstairs.

"You need to learn to put your alarm clock on in the morning, Orihime."

"I'm sorry brother. I thought I turned it on but I guess not." I went over, grabbed a piece of toast, kissed my brother's cheek and headed out.

I ran down my street and turned a few corners. "Hey!" I turned and saw my friend Tatsuki running from her house to catch up to me. "How's it going?"

"Good, I just woke up late that's all. What about you?"

"Well I'm used to you calling me when you wake up. Since you didn't call me I ended up being late too. "

"Yeah sorry about that," I laughed. "Anyway, let's get going. We're going to be late to school again." Tatsuki and I ran to school and made it in record time; we were 5 seconds away from being late. As soon as we got in, the bell rang. We took our seats and panted at our desks.

"I told you she would make it," Rangiku said as she leaned on the right side of my desk.

"I had absolute faith in her," Momo said as she leaned on the left side.

"I like how you all betted on me arriving to school."

"Well the past 2 weeks you've been either close to being late, completely late or downright absent. We got bored so we started betting whether you would be here or not. I said you would be close to being late and Momo said you would be completely late. That's 5 bucks missy." Momo pulled out her wallet and gave Rangiku the money. I smiled and looked behind me to see my classmate, Ichigo Kurosaki, zoned off again.

"Good morning Ichigo." he looked up and grinned.

"Good morning, Orihime. You were late again?"

"No, but I came close. Anyway, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking?"

"Your girlfriend huh?"

"Yeah," he paused, "but everything's fine. You know me; I'll get better in no time." I smiled and turned to face the teacher, who just entered the room.

Ichigo's been one of my best friends since middle school. Tatsuki and I hung around him so much that I started to have a crush on him. Sometimes I asked myself did I love him. I would always blush, but I admitted to it. I loved him. When I heard he had a girlfriend, I was sad for a while. Tatsuki knew why and she told me to let it go; so I did. I never met Ichigo's girlfriend but I heard she was really beautiful. He thinks about her a lot, I can tell, but Ichigo always shows strength in everything he does. His grades are 3rd best in the class and he does what he needs to do to move forward in life. To be honest, she's a lucky girl.

Class continued until it was lunch time. My group headed to the roof to enjoy our lunch there instead of being in the loud classroom or other places. Our spot by the trees was taken so we came up here to the roof. My lunch group was a little bigger than most, but I loved these guys so much that it made me happy to see all of these people. There was me, Tatsuki, Ichigo and his friends Keigo and Mizuiro, Rangiku, Momo, Ikkaku and his friend Yumichika and Ichigo's other friend Renji. We used to have my friend Toshiro but his parents transferred him out of the country. I heard he now goes to the same school as Ichigo's girlfriend in China. I thought that was weird and interesting at the same time. I didn't ask any questions though.

"I heard it's going to rain tomorrow." Momo said. "I saw it on the weather channel this morning."

"We can always depend on you for the weather huh Momo."

"You know it," she smiled to Rangiku.

"Well who cares about that. I heard that pro-wrestling was cancelled because there weren't many viewers. Can you believe that?"

"Pro-wrestling not having enough viewers. Oh, I don't see why that doesn't have many viewers." Keigo said sarcastically.

"I heard "The Seaweed Adventures" got cancelled yesterday."

"Don't remind me!" Keigo cried as he got up and ran to the end of the roof. We all laughed.

"Hey! But here's something strange." Yumichika said. We turned to him. "I checked for some strange things on the internet about a week ago and I found something."

"If you found it last week, then why are you telling us now?" Renji asked.

"Because last night I found evidence to support the sayings and findings." Everyone was quiet. Keigo even returned back to hear. "Last week, what I found was this." Yumichika pulled out a folded sheet of paper from his chest pocket. He unfolded it and placed it on the ground. The large print out showed acres upon acres of building. It looked as if there were farm ranches and even open areas with streams and water wheels. Some areas were large horizontal buildings or maybe even homes. There were paths here and there that led to other places and the homes were connected by wooden bridges. The whole area was surrounded by wooden and wired fences. To be honest, the place was huge and pretty, but I felt unsettled about the place.

"So what's up with the picture?" Ichigo asked.

"This place is pronounced as the MO, also known as Ministry of Obligation."

"Where did you find this?" Tatsuki asked.

"I found it on a website that someone had happened to put up at the time. About 24 hours after he put the website up, he was discovered missing by the police."

"Missing? That's horrible."

"That's not just horrible, it was also no coincidence. Maybe the people at that place got him." Tatsuki said.

"That's true," Yumichika continued, "but I found more information on the matter. The website was taken down when the guy who posted the info went missing, but I recovered it and found more information." Yumichika pulled put a notebook from his bag and read what was on it.

"The MO is an isolated building on the western side of America. It is isolated from the outside world and carried more than 150 adults and 200,000 teenagers/ students around the world."

"Oh my goodness," Momo gasped.

"Yeah, I also read that these students are taken because they were linked to a certain place in a certain amount of time. The building originally started with over 300,000 kids, but it's decreased."

"What happened to the other 100,000?" Rangiku asked.

Yumichika paused. "Their bodies were found outside of the main wired gate." Momo and I covered out mouths.

"How did that guy learn about this?" Renji asked.

"I read that his cousin and two sisters were taken to the place. They stayed for about a year but they ended up dying in the end. They were shot to death. He found them on the news. That's how he found out about them."

"Any no one did or said a thing?"

"The place is isolated." Yumichika answered Keigo. "These bodies were just piled up. Passer by's found the bodies. It could be days or even months until the bodies are found. Even if they could say something they probably didn't because they were scared for their own lives."

"Wait," Ichigo said, "you told us that the students were chosen because they were from a certain area in a certain amount of time. Do you know what that guy was talking about?"

"I'm afraid not. What I showed and told you is all I currently know."

"This is horrible. All of it is just horrible!" I exclaimed. Tatsuki grabbed my shoulder.

"I know and I'm sorry for letting you know."

"I decided this on my own. I just don't understand why someone would allow this to happen. How could someone do this so sudden and why would you take and kill these people. They're sick. They're just so sick!"

Ichigo walked over to me and held me close to his chest. "I know it's horrible, Orihime. But just let it go for now. Just leave it alone." I nodded and wiped my eyes of tears that wanted to fall.

After lunch, we all headed back to the classroom and finished off our day. When she school bell rang, I stayed in my desk to put things in my bag. "Hey, I have to go to work. Will you be ok walking home alone?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I said to Tatsuki.

"Ill walk her home," Ichigo said as he walked over. My heart then skipped a beat.

"I don't know. No offence, but you're a boy, she's a pretty, young feminine girl and its almost dark. I don't know if I should let you two be alone together."

"I have a girlfriend."

"You act like that means something in this world me live in."

"Ill be fine Tatsuki. Go on to work. Ichigo will protect me." I smiled. Tatsuki smiled then agreed to let Ichigo walk me home. I could tell there was a smile on my face as she left the room. After I packed my bag, Ichigo and I headed off. We said goodbye to the friends that passed by us but continued on.

"So Ichigo…"

"Yeah," he asked.

"If you don't mind, could you tell me about your girlfriend?"

Ichigo grinned. It was obvious to tell when I'm nervous about something…or downright blushing. Ichigo knew I liked him, but he still considered me as a friend. I was happy with that. But whatever the case, I still wanted to know about his girlfriend.

"Well, I don't want to spoil too much for you. She's coming to visit me in a week or two."

"That's nice…still tell me what she's like." Ichigo chuckled.

"Well she's pretty. She has black hair and," Ichigo looked at me, "attractive eyes."

"So you mostly dated her because she was pretty?"

"Well not only that. I rarely noticed how beautiful she was. I mostly hung around her because she understood me. She was someone I always wanted to see. I liked having her by my side."

"Then what?"

Ichigo smiled. "I asked her out about two years after we met. She said yes and we've been together ever since. It will be our three year anniversary on Friday."

"Really? Congratulations." I smiled. I looked over and saw my apartment. I told Ichigo goodbye, walked up the stairs and headed inside.

"I'm back brother!" I looked around and saw the lights were off and there was a pot of dinner from last night." He must have worked late again, I thought. I walked up the stairs and plopped on the bed when I reached my room. I looked out of my open window and observed the setting sun. I got up and walked over to the window. I looked at the other apartments in my neighborhood. I looked over and saw someone also looking out of their window, but they were looking at me. This woman had shirt brown hair and black eyes. She stared at me and didn't even blink. I got shaken up then closed my window shade. I turned to turn on my room light since I forgot to turn it on when I came in.

I turned on the light, turned around then found someone standing close to me. I screamed and fell on the floor. The woman in front of me was the exact same woman who was looking at me from the apartment across from mine. How did she get from there to here so quickly?

"Run!" the woman said in a scratchy tone. "Run or you will die…run or you will die…run or you will die!"

I jumped up from the ground, stumbled down the stairs and ran out of my house.

"Tatsuki!"

"Tatsuki!" I ran to her house and banged on her door. I then remembered that she went to work which was across town. I had to go to someone. I couldn't be by myself. I was too afraid to. Where could I go? What could I do?

I bent down on my hands and knees and screamed. I scream and cried as loud as I could. It was all I could do. I didn't want to be a bother and I surely didn't want to go back home. Brother was at work. Tatsuki was at work. No one was close to me so I couldn't go to anyone close. All I could do was cry.

I couldn't stop my tears from falling. I couldn't let go of this constant fear.

"Orihime? Orihime!" someone ran over to me and held me close to their chest. "Orihime, calm down. It's me. Don't worry, it's me." I looked up and saw my brother. His face was white and he was sweating. "I'm here now Orihime. Come on let's go home." I jumped out of my brother's arms and leaned on Tatsuki front door.

"I won't go back. I can't. I just can't!"

"Hey!" I looked over and saw Tatsuki running up to the house.

"Tatsuki? What are you doing here?"

"What the hell do you mean 'what am I doing here?' this is my house. Anyway, what's wrong? I heard you screaming down the street. Did someone hurt you?"

"No, I just…"

"Just what?"

"I just don't want to go home. Please don't make me go back." Tatsuki nodded. "Ill take care of her Sora," Tatsuki said to my brother. "She can stay at my place for a while."

"Alright, but call if anything happens."

"Will do," Tatsuki grinned. My brother left to go back to the apartment. I didn't want to tell him what I say. Maybe it was just me. I didn't know at the time but whatever happened, I just wanted that woman to leave me alone. Tatsuki took me inside and we went in her room. She gave me a soda from the mini-fridge in her room and she had on her bedside lamp. She sat backwards in her chair while I sat on the bed.

"Now what really happened?" she asked while drinking her sprite.

I held my soda tighter. "There was this unknown woman. She stood in front of me, telling me to run or I will die." Tatsuki coughed when she heard this.

"Really?"

"Yeah, did the same thing happen to you?"

"Strangely yeah except I didn't see any lady. I was walking home because my shift ended early. As I was walking I heard a voice of a woman saying, 'run or you will die'. She said it over and over again but I didn't see anyone around me. I was mostly walking alone when I heard it. When I got closer to home it stopped. But a woman said it physically to you?"

"Yeah, she was standing right in front of me and told me what you heard. I never let that woman in the house or anything."

"Well don't worry about it right now." Tomorrow's Thursday so we have school. Get some sleep alright. You can have the bed."

"Thank you Tatsuki." She smiled.

"It's like the sleepover we planned to have this weekend except were having it today." She took out her sleeping bag from the closet and put it on the floor. We got ready for bed and said goodnight as we closed our eyes. But before I drifted to sleep, I felt uneasy. It wasn't only the voice of that woman, but even my own conscience told me to run.

As I felt myself sleeping and waking up, I remembered that I was going to be late to school. I popped my eyes open and sat up as quick as I could. As I sat up, I hit my head on something hard.

"Oww!" I said. I rubbed my head and looked around. There were girls in bunk beds. They were girls I did not recognize. I looked and saw I hit my head on a hold up bar for the second bunk. The person above me moved around a little, then I saw small feet coming down the bed ladder.

"Hey are you ok?" she yawned.

"Yeah I'm ok," I said a little freaked. The girl who asked if I was ok looked normal for the most part but I still didn't know where I was.

"Um, excuse me, what's your name?"

"Me? Well my name Harribel, Tia Harribel. Since you're in my bottom bunk, I guess you're new roommate."

"Your new roommate? What happened to your old one?"

Harribel paused. "Let's not talk about that. Let's just focus on you adjusting to your new home."

"New home?" Harribel nodded. Just then, a tall, well built man charged into the room and turned on the room light.

"Alright girls lets wake it up and get moving." The girls jumped off of their beds and headed to the showers. Everyone headed to the right of me and headed into the narrow bathroom area. The man walked over to me and Harribel's bunk and he looked at me. "I see the young lady woke up bright and early. Get her ready for observation." I looked at Harribel with wide eyes.

"Observation?"

She tilted her head down sadly then looked back up at me. "Welcome to the MO."

Well that's the end of this chapter. To anyone who is confused, again this story is AU. There are no soul reapers, Espada, hollows or anything like that.

I hope I got my point across and I hope you liked it. This story was from a dream I had. It was a long dream so this story will be multi-chapters.

Anyway, please review and comment. Let me know what you think so far. Thank you